How can young people forge a better future for themselves and the world?
Note that the essay tends to be one-sided. You are not asked to agree with it, but only to understand it and come up with your questions about it.
Background: The Plan. In the early twentieth century, major financial figures began preparing the future that has become our present. They publicly organized the U.S. and other countries into associations, corporations, agencies, organizations and schools. This system was designed to support industrialization,militarism, and consumerism as the foundations of society. (This is documented in many scholarly books and articles, and on videos, including this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWBoA3Hpn8A)
Why is it so hard to make a living? This planning and organizing, of course, violated the promises of the founders of the United States for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It began to reduce the numbers of family farms and family businesses, replacing them with larger, more money-oriented and more centralized operations. This shift presented us with a narrower range of employment opportunities, rigid time-schedules, longer work hours and conformist standards. The employment arenas were defined by those at the top, and the freedom to make one’s own choices was vastly diminished once the system was in place. This is a major reason why it has become so hard to make a living in today’s U.S. It is true that opportunities have been left open for a person to be an entrepreneur and start their own innovations, yet when one reaches a degree of success, one’s enterprise is often controlled and made to conform, even taken over and bought out by larger entities.
The split from nature and from other people. Agrarianism was gradually centralized over the course of the twentieth century, and the small farming option was marginalized. This weakened the traditional bond between people and nature, reducing it to recreational activities such as camping and hiking. People have been driven into cities by economics, and the number of small communities where people know each other has been reduced. Many studies have shown that this was done intentionally by larger financial interests motivated by the drive to control their workers. The financial controllers understand that people who know each other and have strong neighborhood social connections are harder to control and force into uniform public schools, as well as into jobs that offer little satisfaction for workers, and little profit for anyone except top management and shareholders.
Morality lost. Of course, through this system, creativity has been minimized, and so has morality. This reduction of morality gravely interferes with our attempts at positive interactions with each other, and with our efforts to raise our children with good values. Violence has been established as a major way of interaction both in reality and in media. Ethics has been crushed, cheapened and compartmentalized, so that humans exploiting humans (and animals, for that matter) to gain money and power has become a powerful ideology.
Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Many Americans have come unthinkingly to accept competition, militarism, violence and corruption as normal or unchangeable. Instead of the right to life as guaranteed by the Constitution, we have the glorification of killing and of losing one's life which is inherent in militarism. The U.S. military service, which is traditionally one of the most honorable callings, has largely lost its protective function, and instead we fight aggressive “wars of choice.” Instead of liberty, we have the 60 hour work week. Instead of the pursuit of happiness, we have the pursuit of consumerism, as if goods can make us happy.
Fitness and spirituality. Good health and the spiritual life, both necessary to be truly human, have both been twisted. Fitness has to a large extent become a cult of unhealthy over-exercise, and can even cause guilt if one does not conform. The standard diet has become very unhealthy and obesity is rampant. Spirituality in many persons has been influenced by certain elements in some organized religions which are used as control agents. Rather than encouraging a personal, direct link to God's love, they project an image of God as a judgmental being and not a loving one.
Personal autonomy. The best thing one can do to improve this world effectively and to escape its toxic effects is to become an autonomous individual with intellectual and emotional freedom. This process is not such an easy task because of the negative cradle-to-grave conditioning we all experience through what we are told by media, education, family, and even our peers.
It can be done: However, with a coalition of like-hearted, positive individuals, personal autonomy can be achieved. Young people can start and/or join a vast variety of creative, humanitarian projects that hold the promise of creating a world that is a joy to live in. Or they can start out in traditional jobs, making sure they avoid the ones that do more harm than good, and gradually develop skills and friends with whom they can become creative and humanitarian. It just takes understanding, commitment and passion, and these are traits of the young, whatever their age. #####
Note that the essay tends to be one-sided. You are not asked to agree with it, but only to understand it and come up with your questions about it.
Can you get a job at a company without bosses? Check this out:
http://www.holacracy.org/how-it-works/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/on-leadership/wp/2015/12/01/tony-hsieh-got-rid-of-bosses-at-zappos-and-thats-not-even-his-biggest-idea/
Many companies are adopting no-boss management:
http://structureprocess.com/holacracy-cases/